governor romney. the president has hit the ground running. he's in ohio this afternoon after holding a post-debate rally in florida a couple of hours ago. a rally in which the president again dished out what he referred to as medical advice to governor romney. >> last night he said he always supported taking out osama bin laden, but in 2007 he said it wasn't worth moving heaven and earth to catch one man. we've come up with a name for this condition. it's called romnesia. we had a severe outbreak last night. it was at least stage 3 romnesia. >> and governor romney left florida late this morning heading to battleground out west. he'll be rallying with paul ryan in nevada within the next hour. let me bring in today's "news nation" panel. margie o'meara, mike conde, and

and jonathan, communications director for american cross roads. michael, i'll start off with you because i enjoy the fact you talk to folks around the country and get their reaction to big nights like the debate. we saw this president the at this rally a couple hours ago hitting the romnesia line again. this time he has point after point to back that up after what we saw last night. i'm not sure how you categorize what happened to mitt romney and his smooth move or rough move to a more moderate candidate. >> well, it was a significantly different governor romney than we saw on primary season. in primary season president obama is the poll giapologist a weak commander in chief. what i found stunning last night, tamron, time and again, syria, egypt, afghanistan, bin laden, so many different things, the drones, it was governor

romney saying me, too. there was no daylight between them. that is not the mitt romney that captured the gop nomination. >> lois, i said smooth or rough move because this is all last night, at least a lot of the analysis this morning is point of view. it's one of those things of what did you want to see? you have conservatives and republicans that said governor romney did a great job. they don't see any deception or any malpractice, if you will, political malpractice in the transition he's made when you look at the columns and op-eds from democrats. they say governor romney was weak and did not have a game to bring on foreign policy. are we simply at the point no matter what happened at that debate last night, you have the pundits and writers who have their story line and point of view, and that's what we see for the next 14 days? >> i think there's really something to that. everybody is pretty dug in right now. i think what you saw with governor romney last night was very strategic. he made a decision to go into

that debate and not make waves, not have a fight with barack obama, not have a fight with bob schieffer. he's leading in the polls right now. he wants to run out the clock a little bit. so he was not going to get -- he was not going to make any kind of a mistake, and i think that's what you saw. he was also trying to appeal to those still little slices of swing voters out there that don't want to see a warmonger. >> in the first debate, the president low energy but nevertheless it was seen as a debate where he was hoping perhaps to stay above the fray, do no harm. at the time he was leading in many polls. how is that different? was he so harshly criticized and then last night it is clear that governor romney did not want to ruffle any feathers, he moved away from talking points and beliefs that he's espoused for many, many months even beyond the republican primary. we're talking about even after the republican convention when by all accounts a candidate

normally would move to positions more accommodating to independent voters? >> i think the president emphasized all that. he said you've changed your position on this on this on this. i'm not saying it's okay. i'm saying this was his strategy. the other thing that did come out very clear last night is that the governor did not have a very deep bench of facts. at a certain point he really did keep repeating himself, and i think that was strategic, too. i mean, he didn't want to get out there and get boxed in like he did last week on the libya conversation. this was a very cautious debate. the last debate, and he didn't want to make errors. >> jonathan, you're the republican on the panel. how would you describe mitt romney's strategy last night? >> i think it's easy to lose sight of who the audience of the debate was, and it was independent voters. if you look at how the

independent voters interpreted the results last night, triple p said they were less likely to stroet for obama afterwards and more likely it to vote for obama afterwards. it's a small sample. it shows the success of romney's strategy, which was to pass that presidential bar, but then also to be talking about these economic issues as much as he could whenever he could. whenever the debate pivoted back to economics, he dominated. i think that was very, very clear, and we saw it over and over again throughout the debate. >> one area he did not dominate and we'll play this clip later, the auto industry. i don't think anyone thinks he dominated on that subject matter and that's millions of jobs for a lot of people in states he needs, particularly ohio. jonathan, i want to bring up what joe scarborough had to say about romney's move to the center and the timing of ait al. >> if he aattacked the center at the convention, he might find himself up considerably even in

states like ohio. >> after this convention if mitt romney appeared to be doing better in ohio. i want to go back to something ugsd about the appearance of being presidential. how is that a good appearance when you are following the guy already in office? you say he set a bar or he reached the bar. the bar was being held by the president when he's constantly saying, me, too. this guy is right. where is the complaint? where is i can do a better job or the direction for the foreign policy for this country go? >> what the president of the united states, everyone gets that the president of the united states has been briefed literally thousands of times over the course of his presidency on foreign policy and intelligence issues. they know that the president and virtually in every circumstance comes into the debate with more information in his head that is disposable than any challenger. that's the frame that independents look for. they want to make sure they believe that the candidate who is challenging is someone that they vote for, that they can trust, that they trust will make good decisions. he cleared that bar last night

when he went back to economic issues. >> let me play a few items where mitt romney agreed with the president on things in the past. you say the president gets briefings, but that has never stopped republicans or governor romney from criticized the president from syria to what to do with iran. it never stopped him giving him opinions despite having or not having the briefings the president has been privy to. here's a montage of the agrees moments. >> as the president indicated and said at the time that i supported his action there, we had to go into pakistan. we had to go in there to osama bin laden. that was the right thing to do. it's widely reported that drones are used in drone strikes and i support that entirely and feel that the president was right. >> so margie, what do you describe this strategy of governor romney? other republicans believe it was effective. already today it gave the president the first talking point that had the audience in florida on their feet. >> well, i think it would be one

thing if mitt romney had a cooperative, collaborative style this entire campaign, but he hasn't. the truth is he's been incredibly confrontational and on form rin policy generally where he has reflexive opposition for everything obama is for. he had a completely different take alast night, and i think that reveals some of the vulnerabilities that romney has generally. his willingness to really play all different sides of an issue, and two, realizing that a lot of positions are really unpopular with a lot of swing voters. he has to move more to the middle at the very end. i did watch the debate with some walmart moms last night, and they did appreciate some of the more agreement, seeing some agreement and less of the combativeness between the two candidates. ultimately the polls show that obama won this debate. he seemed strong.

he seemed confident. mitt romney didn't really have anything to add. >> the cnn poll who won the debate, the president 48%, the cbs poll uncommitted voters who won the debate, 53%. let me bring you back. i want to play what senator rob portman said on "morning joe" when he was on the spot why -- even though the gap is closing in ohio, why hasn't his economic message sealed the deal in that state. >> most people in ohio that i've met and i've spent some time there really credit the president for the auto bailout and the fact that you have the chevy cruise being built there from seat covers to assembly. >> we're really happy in ohio the auto industry is making a comeback, but ohio voters will be really surprised when they learn it was barack obama who took them through bankruptcy. >> this was a big moment in the debate last night. the auto bailout. i don't know how at this point you can continue to fact check. we know the facts of what

happened. we know the op-ed that was written by governor romney. what do you make of this, michael? is it a reinvention of history? is it to make bankruptcy and all of the details so complicated that some of the people who are on the fence, some of the white middle class workers will get confused over what happened? >> yes, i think in a word is probably is, and i think it underscores houchl of this race continues to hang in the balance in the buckeye state. if the president is re-elected and if he's re-elected with ohio in his column, i think we're going to look back at this issue, tamron, and say it was the outcome determinative in the whole campaign. >> let me play that exchange from the debate regarding the auto bailout between governor romney and the president. >> i said they need these companies need to go through a managed bankruptcy, and in that process they can get government help and government guarantees. >> that's not what you said. >> you can take a look at the op-ed. >> you did not say that you

would provide government help. governor romney you keep on trying to, you know, airbrush history here. >> jonathan, is governor romney trying to airbush history as it relates to the auto bailout? >> i went back and read the op-ed last night. i got on my phone and looked into it. he says that the auto industry, the companies could ask the government for help. i don't know that he was necessarily totally off-base on it. everybody should read that "new york times" piece. it's also critical to get out of the bubble here. we're talking about the foreign policy bit of this. this is all very eerily reminiscent in 1992 when george h.w. bush wanted to talk policy while bill clinton ate his lunch on it. >> so you believe in the auto bailout moment there last night that governor romney ate president obama's lunch on the auto bailout? >> in the first presidential debate, absolutely. it was all about the economy. >> we're talking about last

night. you told me that foreign policy, while important, your guy's "a" game is the economy and at every opportunity, both tried to figure out a way to pre bring in the economy. the big point of the economy in ohio is the auto bailout. people right now might be on their lunch break watching who have a job because of that auto bailout, and you believe the presentation from governor romney last night was fact and not an airbrushing attempt to get them to vote and i was behind this? >> i think the proof is in the pudding. just today in response to all of this, just today president obama put out a new economic plan less than two weeks ago. it's a bunch of recycled ideas over the last couple of years. i think that they are scared on the economy, and i think that's clear in the aftermath of the debate. >> lois, let me bring you in on this. i don't want to harp on the auto bailout, but i think it is very important. i come from a working class family. i'm sure many of you are on the

panel. >> this represents a lot, much of the conversation are people wanting to know more from the president regarding the future and also, do you believe in america? we've done a segment every day on china versus ohio. not to pit people against another country, but to say the manufacturing world has changed forever here, and there are people who will work these jobs in those factories who depend on the auto industry and retire with pensions and they're watching this and trying to decide who was on their side. >> it's very significant, and it's why mitt romney is not particularly competitive in his own home state of michigan right now. the people of ohio are very big in the auto industry. it's why obama has been leading, and they're paying attention to all of this. >> margie, quickly, i want to play this new ad out from the president called determination. it brings up the auto industry and also a point of criticism for the president. let me play this new ad he's got out. >> our auto industry, back.

our heroes are coming home. we're not there yet, but we've made real progress. the last thing we should do is turn back now. >> margie, should that have been the message a while ago and not big bird and other things. governor rendell pretty much wrote this ad for the bahama campaign. he said you need to hit this home, but is it too late for governor romney to become more moderate after the convention, is it too late for this message? >> i've heard that message from the obama campaign for a while. we're making progress, but we have more ground to cover in the recovery. i've heard that for a long time in the obama campaign. i think what's important here is not simply can mitt romney check the box on saying he's a moderate for the last two weeks. only one candidate really has demonstrated an understanding of shared struggle and support for the middle class, while mitt romney, behind closed doors, says, you know, half of the

electorate, i don't care about them because they think they're entitled to food. that's the difference between now and 1992. bill clinton didn't say i'm not concerned about half the electorate, they're victims. that's the crux of the election. >> michael, it's always a pleasure. lois great to have you on as well and, of course, jonathan we love your voice. you are equal parts here. thank you so much. up next, during the debate governor romney said america lost its influence around the world. well, there's a new poll out. thousands participated in the poll. 21 countries, and they were asked, bahama asked, obama or romney? we'll have the results after the break. they spar over israel and the threat of a nuke iran. >> when i he went to israel as a candidate, i didn't take donors. i didn't attend fund-raisers. >> "time" magazine rana forohhar and logic frederick join me.

with two weeks to go, nbc news battleground nap is out and there are big changes to report including what states are now leaning. join our conversation on twitter. find us at @tamronhall and at @newsnation. i'm a conservative investor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities. india, china, brazil, ishares, small-caps, large-caps, ishares. industrials. low cost. every dollar counts. ishares. income. dividends. bonds. i like bonds. ishares. commodities. diversification. choices. my own ideas. ishares. i want to use the same stuff the big guys use. ishares. 8 out of 10 large, professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. introducing the ishares core, etfs for the heart of your portfolio.

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welcome back. in the debate last night governor romney argued america's influence in the world has decreased since president obama took office. >> i look around the world. i don't see our influence growing around the world. i see on on you influence receding. >> the problem is on a whole range of issues, whether it's the middle east, whether it's afghanistan, whether it's iraq,

whether it's now iran, you've been all over the map. >> and a new bbc poll out just today shows 21 countries prefer president obama to be elected, 50% to 9%. just one snapshot to take a look at. joining me, 2,000 people participated in that. "time" magazine's international editor jim frederick and assistant managing editor rana. rana, your thoughts. yesterday we were talking about a possible strategy, governor romney hugging the policies of the president. that's exactly what happened, and i'm stunned by how surprised people were, because our first read team noted that that would be the theory. dan senor was on "morning joe" and said there was no difference in the withdrawal from afghanistan. that they supported the 2014. why the big surprise this morning? >> well, it's really interesting.

through the whole debate there was a convergence in a lot of ways of the president's policies and what governor romney was saying. i was surprised by the talk around afghanistan, and i think a lot of people were. that this was a policy long held, that the romney camp cited the withdrawal was a good thing. to change that in the debate was an interesting pivot. >> dan said it on "morning joe." he said there was no difference. i want to play the moment during the debate that was such a stunner. >> we're going to be finished by 2014, and when i'm president, we'll make sure we bring our troops out by the end of 2014. >> so what were his other options? could he say i think we're going to stay there another 10, 15 years and really think he would get in the white house with this war-wary country. >> he did back off on this -- call for a review. >> with the generals and find out what they said. >> we're not going to hurry out there. why telegraph the date?

why tell somebody you will leave their party? this is where he came down off of that. he said we're going to be done, we're out in 2014. >> i don't see what other option he had, other than to embrace or the wording was hug the president's policies. he knows the numbers and seen the polls. no one wants to stay in afghanistan. we see stories of young men and women and what they believe. what could he have said different than that and be a winner? >> probably nothing. i think what's interesting is he takes this hard tack to the moderate. is the question worth asking. are you a flip-flopper or are you the real moderate mitt? >> how many times can we ask that question? you you talk about tax policy, and those issues are important. when you discuss a war or perhaps what actions on to take in syria, that takes on a whole new life and meaning because you talk about the sons and daughters of our country

possibly having boots on the ground in another situation. i'm not giving anyone legroom or room to wiggle, but when you're talking about war, that is agreej yus if you have a flip-flop stance. it's not an evolution at some point. >> the president made that point. he said very clearly that one of the things about being commander in chief is you have to be clear. you have to provide clarity. one of the things that i think was an interesting difference between the two candidates and the president sort of drew it out with a funny quip about romn romney's foreign policy from the '80s and his social policy from the '50s and his economic policy from the '20s is this fact you have a language of a strong america. america that's going to kill the bad guys. a much more unipolar world, and that was a dbig difference. >> the other big moment was israel. >> you went to the middle east, and you flew to egypt and to

saudi arabia and to turkey and iraq. by the way, you skipped israel. our closest friend in the region, but you went to the other nations. by the way, they noticed that you skipped israel. >> when i went to israel as a candidate, i didn't take donors. i didn't attend fund-raisers. i went to the holocaust museum there to remind myself the nature of evil and why our bond with israel will be unbreakable. then i went down to the border towns which had experienced missiles raining down from hamas, and i saw families there who showed me where missiles had come down near their children's bedrooms. i was reminded of what that would mean if those were my kids. >> jim, the president could said, no, i support israel. he went really personal. when you talk about children and missiles, that's a deep level. >> yeah. i think we got to a level of

irritation there where it has become somewhat personal to obama. i think he's tired of getting stick with this stick that he's unfriendly with israel or pea nired a bad relationship with israel. florida is still in play. the entire debate was i'm the greatest friend of israel. no, i'm the greatest friend of israel. a lot of that was for the domestic voter, but at the same time you could hear edge to men's voices where it's particularly personal for obama. i think he's sick of it and the administration is sick of it and they're sick of being painted as a bad friend of israel. >> with no proof of that being true? >> they've been one of the most friendly in the history of the united states. >> mitt romney, how do you retort that when someone talking about you in town with sheldon adelson and i'm walking with children of israel? how do you counter that? i want to play this new ad out,

governor romney, the apology tour. let's get your thoughts on that. >> the president began with an ap apology tour of going to various neighbors of criticizing america. i think they look at that skau weakness. >> that's the new ad today. apology tour from the guy i agree with all the positions on everything, foreign policy. it would be funny if it were not so important to all of us. this is the come back the day after. >> the president said when fact checkers look at this issue, he's not on an poll he jie tour. he never apologized for american values and beliefs and for our position in the world. i think that it goes back to this very sort of black and white view of the world that the romney camp is presenting versus this kind of more nuanced, multi-polar vision that the president is presenting. >> does it go to the point of mitt romney still slightly strajdzing the fence. yesterday he was a more moderate candidate, and this new ad could

have been written by conservative bloggers who showed a range of pictures where it said it depicted the president bowing down. >> exactly. i think the president hit hard on this point several times during the debate. romney has been all over the map on any number of positions about foreign policy. >> thank you. it's always a great pleasure to have your insight on this. we're following developing news from wall street. the dow has dropped sharply today, poised for the first losing october since 2008. it had been closing at an all-time high. it's down 223 points. we'll check in with our colleague at cnbc to find out what's happening. in the next hour governor romney will be in nevada. political voices out of that state will join us to talk about the changing demo in his home state. the capital one cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus.

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welcome back. watching wall street where it could be one of the worst days of year for the dow. right now it's down over 200 points but off the day's lows much join me gnaw is tyler matheson. the dow was at five-year highs. what's going on today? >> it's a big sell off, unlike last week when it aaffected technology stocks, today it's the core industrial companies basically because some of the earnings have come up a little bit short. i'm talking about companies like united technologies, a diversified manufacturer, 3m, dupont and others. that's why you see the dow down about 1.75%. all of those three stocks i just mentioned are constituents of the dow industrials. one way or another, either because their earnings weren't what forecasters expected and the sales weren't as high as the

forecasters hoped for or the issued guidance that came up short and chilled investors, those stocks pulling down the dow. the damage today is a little less bad among technology shares, but i should mention apple stock. it's down about $15 at this hour. down about more than 2% on the release of the news of this ipad mini, a $329 ipad that the company will come out with in short order. often these things are buy the rumors and sell the news. today the investors in apple seem to be selling the news. >> the fed is meeting and no change in interest rates is expected and ben bernanke told close friends he won't stand for a third term even if president obama is re-elected. >> that's true. not any news expected to come out of the fed as of this meeting. interest rates are basically as low as they can possibly get right now. maybe some more language on its bond buying intentions. i would not expect, by the way,

to it hear mr. bernanke say anything coming out of this meeting about his personal intentions. of course, mr. romney has said in no uncertain terms he would not reappoint mr. bernanke. >> thank you for coming on for us. still ahead, we're done with debates, so is it fair to ask the question, is it time for the old style to give way to a new school format? i'm going to talk with ari who says it may be time for a new world order when it comes to debates we watch in the future. plus linda mcmahon tackles a new approach. embrace obama. >> i'm supporting president obama and linda mcmahon. >> i'll vote for barack obama and linda mcmahon this year. >> linda mcmahon does not support the health care law. she believes the president were responsible for the slow economic recovery. so why embrace president obama?

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here. >> with two weeks to go, we decided after talking to the campaigns, seeing less of the public polling but talking to campaigns. really what you see in nevada, the romney camp seeing the same numbers we are as far as business panics go. the obama campaign same thing. only 15% -- they only made up 15% in 2008. they made up 16% in 2010 for harry reid in a rear where there was an increased older and white vote. you'll see something along the same lines. because of that nevada goes. north carolina has been sort of leaning towards romney. you would think it would be a romney state. it's still close, but the obama folks, romney folks starting to see it as more of a lean romney state. we put that there. then we moved iowa back into toss-up. while it had been leaning after that debate performance, we saw some shifting. you listening to both campaigns, they don't think that iowa is

leaning one way or other the right now. maybe a finger on the scale forl obama, but it's back in the toss-up column. >> you have 243 electoral votes. switch the map to republican states, solid lean likely, 206 electoral votes for ail total on the next map if we pull it up 89 electoral votes. so factor in that map, doe minimum co-with the travel plans of governor romney and president obama in these final 14. >> they're all over the place in these states. you know, the ad spending has been incredible as well. up to about $850 million in ads, been across just about nine states. they're traveling to those places and trying to finally close the deal with people. colorado, we might be watching colorado until early in the morning on november 7th, because it's out west.

you have a very unpredictable electorate. i think that's one of those states that we're going to be watching very, very late into that night. >> real quick, so the people don't think this is just willy-nilly, that you're not throwing darts at a board here, this is also factoring in where the campaign -- i have to ask that. someone said you guys move it at will. no, we don't, and no you and your team don't here. you look where the campaigns are focused. >> look, this is partially -- it's reporting as well. we're talking to sources inside both campaigns to take the temperature of where they think these races are moving and then taking that with public polling, taking that with other private polling we've seen or heard from. it's not just willy-nilly. it's not a prediction. i want that to be clear. it's just where things are right now. how the campaigns feel, what the polls are showing, and that's about our best guess on some of these right now. >> thank you very much. greatly appreciate your insight

there. governor romney is about to arrive in nevada where he and his runni ning mate will team u for a rally in about a half hour i guess outside of las vegas. joins any now the man who is called the guru of nevada, john ralston, the author of his website. thank you so much. there needs to be something cooler than guru when you live in nevada. >> i'll take it. >> wild west. guru works for you. let's talk about the nevada. the changing demographics of that state is why we heard him say it's now leaning democrat to the president. >> yeah. i think he's right. dominico is definitely rise not just because of the hispanic vote. it's 15, 16% of the electorate. romney is behind by 30, 40 points. obama won hispanics by 50 points in nevada four years ago. he may not win it that big, but he doesn't have to win the state. there's early voting already

taking place in nevada. about 10% of clark county, which is where las vegas is, has already voted. the democrats center a huge -- built up a huge lead, almost 20,000 votes they banked here. >> for the next 14 days we'll look the at each battleground states and why they're in motion. ohio is a lot about the auto bailout. florida, a lot of conversation about medicare, mediscare whatever you choose to call it. in nevada if it's not exclusively the hispanic population, what is the issue you think is resonating one way or the other as to why it's leaning toward the president at this point? >> it's a great question. it should be leaning the other way. we arguably have the worst economy in the country. we have the highest unemployment rate still around 12%. we have a terrible housing crisis, and yet romney has not made inroads there. the main reason i think is because of the democratic party infrastructure and the harry reid machine. the democrats have increased

their registration numbers and have a 7% lead statewide. that's very, very difficult to overcome, especially with the that democrats have organizationally. they have the unions. they bank the votes. obama won the state by 12 points in 2008. they can bank enough votes they don't need to win the state by 12 points. they're banking enough votes now where it looks like he wins the state by 5 or 6 points. >> that is not stopping governor romney from heading to your home state. we greatly appreciate you and i'm sure we'll talk to you soon. coming up, some got upset when president obama called governor romney's claim of presidential apology tour, a quote, giant whopper. presidential doris kerns goodwin says we've got to toughen up. >> in the old days they used to say teddy roosevelt said you just lied. you atrociously lied. >> to say that these days,

people would be mad at you. there's a lot going on today. a post-debate zinger from massachusetts senator john kerry. the senator was the president's sparring partner and played the role of mitt romney for all three rehearsals. the senator tweeted out this picture of a scene from the 1973 classic "the exorcist." wasn't joking when i need an exorcism after months of playing mitt romney. pre-election state in ohio. near toe lead toe they sent out thousands of notices saying it was thursday november 8th instead of tuesday november 6th. new notices are being sent out. and nickelodeon has been polling kids on who they think will win the white house since 1988, and the kids have been right in every election except for one. this year the kids chose president obama in a landslide capturing 65%.

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awesome!!! [ male announcer ] the spark business card from capital one. choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? when it comes to presidential debates it seems rules are mentd to be broken. in this debate season both candidates have retunely ran over their allotted time, invaded each other's space and it always seems a zinger tweeted out by millions of people is more important than stub stance. is this a sign that the debate format is flawed? in fairness one of the things tweeted a lot last night was bob was the first moderator who did not allow himself to be rolled over by governor romney who lobbied for more time and didn't get it. as soon as that moment happened, i went on twitter. that's what people noticed

instantly. not what he was talking about but bob was not playing. >> we found mitt romney in the first two debates broke the rules more than barack obama. whether that's good politics or not the voters decide. the rules are weird when you look at details. they say that the moderator cannot comment in any way on what the candidates say, good or bad. >> which is why candy crowley took so much heat. >> she announced i won't play by rules. why are the rules so bad? they are negotiated between the two campaigns and approved by the debate commission and not released to the public. one of my arguments is if these debates are so important, shouldn't we get access to the rules sxr some other person in the room other than two self-interested candidates. >> it's like watching football. if tomorrow they change the guy and you watch to figure out if

it's a foul or good or bad. we live in a cable news world. twitter was not what it was now in the national election cycle. cable news by many accounts not number-wise where it was back then? are we living in a cable news world that requires candidates to be tougher and exude more dominance? you want to be the president of the united states. i know schools that have tougher presidents running for student body than some of the candidates in the past. >> that's a great point. we move from sound bites to tweets, to the idea of what's the quickest and cleverest thing. the problem is the half-life of this stuff is so reduced. obama had a great line there saying you don't understand the way the military works if you count navy ships, right? he likened it to horses. mitt romney may have a lot of horses. >> he has won that's pretty good. >> it had a double ontondra that

caught online. when we talk about issues on the table it's a problem when you play more to more of the issues. israel was mentioned more than any other country. mentioned more than china or canada. this is the plain old domestic politics? >> president obama referred to governor romney's big chopper this morning doris kearns goodwin says people people need to toughen up. some were offended by whopper, and in new york women were turned off by this aggression. she notes na abraham lincoln, teddy roosevelt would call someone a liar. now it's like you can't. the you say the person moderated or shifted, not flat out they lied. that was political language years ago and now we're soft.

>> we're soft. for 100 years we had a purely partisan press. when we expected people to be objective, it was limited. the apology tour has been found by everyone not to have happened, so whopper was a nice thing. he could have gone harder. the other side is people want to take a measure of these men. if you look at mitt romney and see he's changing his answer a the lot or angry or disrespectf disrespectful, you can factor that in. some say the president being president, being so powerful may have been too tough on mitt romney. people have to look at that. >> i think that new york debate has changed the game. i don't think anyone can sit there and take things anymore, when they get attacked on twitter like we do. thank you very much. the gut economic is up next. it has to do with republican linda mcmahon. she's against the president's health care plan and blames him for the slow economic recovery but embracing him in a new ad in hopes of winning connecticut.

time for the "news nation"

gut check. the u.s. senate race in connecticut is one of the tightest races in the country and it's key for control of the senate. it shows democratic congressman chris murphy with a two--point lead over republican challenger of linda mcmahon. she's edging away from her own party urging people in connecticut to vote for her and president obama. take a look. >> i'm supporting president obama and linda mcmahon. >> i'll vote for barack obama and linda mcmahon this year. >> i'm voting for president obama and i'm voting for linda mcmahon. >> mcmahon opposes the president's health care legislation. she criticized him for the weak economic recovery, and you saw there a number of african-americans featured in that ad as well. what does your gut tell you? smart strategy or desperate move? going to facebook.com/newsnation to cast your view. that does it for this edition of "news nation." i'm tamron hall. "the cycle" is up next.

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